Patrick Chambers donned eye black and a white No. 24 football jersey before leading an anxious student section outside Beaver Stadium to the signature Happy Valley cheer of "We Are ... Penn State!"
The Nittany Lions' new basketball coach sure knows how to get the fans going in the offseason. Now it's time to see how that enthusiasm will rub off on his players on the Jordan Center court.
"Playing hard, playing smart, playing together with pride," Chambers said during one of his many off-campus appearances this offseason to promote the team. "We're going to play hard. We're going to keep after it, I promise you that."
For a program often stuck in neutral, even this latest makeover was unexpected.
A run to the Big Ten tournament final helped the Nittany Lions grab their first NCAA tournament bid in a decade. Led by career-leading scorer Talor Battle, Penn State lost to Temple, 66-64 in the second round on an 18-footer by Juan Fernandez with 0.4 seconds left.
Penn State finished 19-15 in the last season for the gritty Battle and three fellow senior starters, leaving a rebuilding job for coach Ed DeChellis - before DeChellis left himself in late May to take the same job at Navy. A Penn State graduate, DeChellis surprised his bosses with the news and timing of his departure to a Patriot League program.
Penn State quickly regrouped and turned to Chambers, a Philadelphia-area native and former Villanova assistant who parlayed a successful two-year stint at Boston University into his first power-conference job.
"There (were) no promises," Chambers said Thursday at Big Ten media day in Chicago when asked if he gave administrators a commitment to bring the raise the basketball program's profile to the level of the football team. "But my vision is to make Penn State basketball tops in the Big Ten, tops in the country every single year, just like football."
The Terriers went 42-28 in Chambers' two seasons, winning with an up-tempo offense while still keeping a focus on defense. There were 23rd in the nation in field goal defense (39.9 percent).
It looks like Chambers will try to install the same philosophy in Happy Valley. The word "attitude" - typically in big, bold letters - is now found on nearly everything connected to the program, from letterhead to wristbands to the T-shirts that Chambers has been handing out around campus.
Players talk about intense hustle drills in practice. Offensively, forward Billy Oliver expects Penn State to run more.
"It's going to be much more of a fast-paced game, looking to speed up teams and get up and down more," Oliver said this week. Chambers "is a product of (coach) Jay Wright in Villanova, so you can expect to see similarities between those teams and how they play."
Unfortunately for Chambers, he'll need to rely on a revamped and relatively inexperienced roster in the tough Big Ten.
The results may not be pretty.
Four of last year's top five scorers have departed, along with the top four rebounders.
The lone returning starter is junior Tim Frazier (6.3 points, 5.0 assists), who formed an effective backcourt combination with Battle.
Now, though, Frazier will be the go-to guy, relied on to score more and push the ball in transition. Chambers compared Frazier to recent Villanova standout guards like Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher.
"And I'll put Tim Frazier right up there with those guys. His speed, his intensity, his willingness to be coached is really second to none," Chambers said. "And that's what we need this year. We need a guy that's going to fill that void."
Otherwise, the rest of the starting five will be a mish-mash of former reserves - none of whom averaged more than Oliver's 14.3 minutes a game - or a group of newcomers recruited by the previous regime.
Forget those half-court sets run last year with the intent of getting Battle the ball. Penn State will likely start out running an offense with one big man surrounded by four perimeter players.
Junior college transfer Matt Glover and freshman Trey Lewis are among candidates to see time on the wings, along with Oliver, a 6-foot-8 forward who likes to shoot jumpers.
Six-foot-9 sophomore Sasa Borovnjak is expected to start in the middle after missing last season with a right knee injury. Chambers likes the "basketball IQ" of Borovnjak, who showed spurts of promise his freshman year.
Chambers hopes to get his lone senior, guard Cammeron Woodyard, back from a left knee injury by the Nov. 12 season opener against Hartford.
Jermaine Marshall could be the team's most explosive scorer, but might need to work on defense to see the floor consistently. He has off-court issues to resolve, too, that left him suspended this preseason. Chambers said Thursday that Marshall is doing well academically but didn't offer a timetable for his return.
